Blueberries are expected to peak for 2-3 weeks, with retailers providing significant in-store fixture space and catalogue promotion. Strawberries have dropped volume week on week, but retail prices have come back with the expected pricing pressure from Blueberries. Raspberries have dropped volume nationally after the heat event, and Blackberries are behind week on week from a volume perspective.
Volume continues to come on at peak levels for the 1111’s (Opi) coming out of the Coffs Coast. We expect this to continue for the next 2-3 weeks, which means it would be unlikely we will see an increase in price in the short term (10-14 days). Once we get past the peak of this crop, we will be moving into school holidays, which will continue to put pressure on price, but we will monitor this in the coming weeks.
Far North QLD – We continue on a downswing to the end of their season, and we are back 50% from the peak. Quality is still pretty good in this region. The cooler temperatures that are being experienced at the start of the week will increase again to the high 20s and early 30s next week.
Coffs Coast NSW – Peak continues out of this region for the short term. Quality is still ok at best. However, looking ahead at the harvest conditions for the next week (aside from today), the weather conditions look good for harvest for the next two weeks with very little rain forecast.
WA Production – We are seeing larger volumes come on, with both the Northern and Southern production windows harvesting. As such, we will see the wholesale price of premium come back in the coming weeks to support the extra volume that is being harvested. Quality in WA continues to be good. Looking at the upcoming weather, we can expect ideal harvesting conditions will see fruit in the North of Perth. The Southern growing is still experiencing cooler night and day temps. Single digit minimums for the next two days, then it will be mid-teens maximum temperatures.
Strawberries – As noted above, volumes have dropped week on week for production; however, we have indicated that prices have dropped on the East Coast this week. I expect that this is retailer-driven, and it’s very likely to be the only week of major retail being below $2.00 retail. Strawberry demand is likely to be fatiguing with customers due to Blueberries coming into peak. We expect there to be some cannibalization between the two berries therefore price moving up is expected to be slower than it is coming down.
Raspberries / Blackberries – We are still seeing long cane production out of the Southeast QLD region / Northern NSW, but this production has dropped for both categories week on week. Two growers in the MB group have started their Spring crop (albeit minimal volumes), and others are seeing green fruit and flowers at several farms. Blackberries were up vs the same week last year, but the volumes are insignificant to draw any insight from at such low levels. We expect this to increase in the coming weeks, with much flowering occurring.
